I see your point and your not wrong. When we played DnD over the years there was always one person in the group that wanted to be the "evil" character and would kill, literally for the sake of the kill. Most of us played "good" characters. There was violence for sure but it was not so indiscriminate. In BG3 there is a path in the game, with rewards for murdering the Tieflings and the Druids. Not because they are a threat or they have defiled a temple, just killing them for killing them. I wanted to understand so I played that path once and I honestly felt like I had to die a little inside to finish it. I stopped that play through right then and will not do an evil play through again.
Yeah, though there's a distinction between people who play "Evil" characters and would kill during a campaign and the "Murderhobos" which is a term used to describe people who during a campaign kill literally everyone they can simply because they can.
BG3's "Evil" route tends to err towards the Murderhobo side of things than a proper "Evil" character (Who can often be a very interesting part of a campaign. I know of times when it was devised that the "Evil" character would actually end up being the BBEG at the end of the campaign)
That said, even BG3's "Good" path involves a lot of violence. Murdering the leaders of the Goblin camp to save the Tieflings. Murdering the Inquisitor. Cutting off Nere's head. Murdering wing guy in Last Light Inn (I forget his name). Murdering Ketheric Thorm. Murdering Orpheus' guards. Murdering Orin and Gortash.
Originally Posted by Zentu
As for all the discussion about romance in the game. I am becoming a little sad. The main story of the game is finding a way to cure yourself of an Illithid parasite and then to save others from a possible Illithid invasion. Yet it seems like any content effort being added to the game is for romantic, sexual and general knee jerk emotional material. Would have much rather seen an effort to add more content that was applying directly to the main plot.
I bought this game for a DnD adventure and feel like we are getting sword and sorcery fantasying dating simulator.
Technically, romance IS directly part of the main plot.
Since the initial premise of the game is "Find allies", allies that you then adventure with throughout the entire game. Thus you have a relationship with them. It starts off as a purely "We're in the same situation, may as well work together" but throughout the game grows into friendships and more.
It doesn't necessarily advance the main plot (Besides befriending the Emperor as killing him literally stops campaign), but it's very much part of it.
It's not part of a typical TT DnD experience, because of a multitude of differences between a Tabletop Game and a Video Game such as:
- In a TT game there's a person behind the character, so there's never 100% immersion. - In a TT game there's other players and it would be cringy af if 2 players spent time having their characters romance each other. - TT characters are often throwaways. Once the campaign is over, their character's story ceases to exist so there's no point in setting up long lasting plots like relationships (In a video game there's implied permenance to characters. You can presume that after the events of the game, the characters would keep living their life) - Not all TT characters have deep backstory and characterisation written for them, making it less necessary to devote time to finding out about the character in question.
In essence, TT characters are less people and more vehicles to go through a campaign (Even those that are well written, with deep lore and backgrounds). In a video game, there's more room to make characters be people and do people things like socialise (Thus, video games do often incorporate relationships, because video games are played by people... And people to people things like socialise)
